Young warrior Red Kangaroo, by his mental and physical prowess, becomes a chief of his tribe - the revered and powerful Red Chief of the Gunnedah district. His story is handed down from generation to generation by its hero's tribe and given by the last survivor, Bungaree, to the white settlers of the district.

yThe Poetical Works of Henry KendallHenry Kendall,
Thomas Thornton Reed
(editor),
Adelaide:Libraries Board of South Australia,1966Z5714731966selected work poetry AbstractThis critical edition includes 90 previously uncollected poems and collates manuscripts of the poems and their appearances in periodicals and newspapers during the poet's life-time. There are copious biographical and critical notes, indexes and a bibliography.Adelaide:Libraries Board of South Australia,1966

yThis Land : An Anthology of Australian Poetry for Young PeopleM. M. Flynn
(editor),
J. Groom
(editor),
Rushcutters Bay:Pergamon Press,1968Z13775061968anthology poetry children's AbstractA collection of poems which cover a period of Australian history from the Dreamtime to World War Two. Poems about native animals and the Australian landscape and culture are also included.Rushcutters Bay:Pergamon Press,1968

yTwo Centuries of Australian PoetryMark O'Connor
(editor),
Melbourne:Oxford University Press,1988Z3222471988anthology poetry criticism AbstractContains poems grouped into 18 thematic sections (19 in 2nd. ed.) ; each section has an introduction, notes and suggestions for study activities and further study. Biographical notes on authors and indexes also included.Melbourne:Oxford University Press,1988

'The Australian Poetry Library (APL) aims to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of Australian poetry by providing access to a wide range of poetic texts as well as to critical and contextual material relating to them, including interviews, photographs and audio/visual recordings.

This website currently contains over 42,000 poems, representing the work of more than 170 Australian poets. All the poems are fully searchable, and may be accessed and read freely on the World Wide Web. Readers wishing to download and print poems may do so for a small fee, part of which is returned to the poets via CAL, the Copyright Agency Limited. Teachers, students and readers of Australian poetry can also create personalised anthologies, which can be purchased and downloaded. Print on demand versions will be availabe from Sydney University Press in the near future.

It is hoped that the APL will encourage teachers to use more Australian material in their English classes, as well as making Australian poetry much more available to readers in remote and regional areas and overseas. It will also help Australian poets, not only by developing new audiences for their work but by allowing them to receive payment for material still in copyright, thus solving the major problem associated with making this material accessible on the Internet.

The Australian Poetry Library is a joint initiative of the University of Sydney and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Begun in 2004 with a prototype site developed by leading Australian poet John Tranter, the project has been funded by a major Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC), CAL and the University of Sydney Library. A team of researchers from the University of Sydney, led by Professor Elizabeth Webby and John Tranter, in association with CAL, have developed the Australian Poetry Library as a permanent and wide-ranging Internet archive of Australian poetry resources.' Source: www.poetrylibrary.edu.au (Sighted 30/05/2011).

'The 60 poems in this collection appear in their original, or near original, form and are wide-ranging in their subject matter: animals, the countryside, the struggle of bush life, early transport, sport, growing old, being young and having fun with words! But whether they are humorous, serious or playful, they are simply a joy to read!

'No matter if we grew up reciting these classic poems at school, quote from them on important occasions or are meeting them for the first time, there is no doubt that these classic poems embody what it is to be Australian.' (From the publisher's website.)

Related Works

yThe Last of His TribeHenry Kendall,
Percy Trezise
(illustrator),
Mary Haginikitas
(illustrator),
Sydney:CollinsAnne Ingram Books,1989Z9136251989single work picture book children's AbstractA lonely Australian Aboriginal warrior thinks of the time before his people were wiped out by the white man, and wonders what the future holds for him as the last member of his tribe.

The Radiant Dream : Notes on Henry KendallAdrian Mitchell,
1969single work criticism — Appears in:
Australian Literary Studies,Octobervol.
4no.
21969;(p. 99-114)Henry Kendall : The Muse of Australia1992;(p. 37-53)AbstractMitchell looks to Kendall's poetry for a "system of images that amount to a loose poetic philosophy, an attitude of mind that is formulated emotionally rather than logically, but in any case consistently". Mitchell detects an observer who occupies a middle (dream-like) state beside a stream between differents poles such as real/ideal and city/forest. Although the observer seeks but can't find the source of this stream, he gains the ability to believe in poetic vision--the radiant dream. Mitchell argues that all of Kendall's poetry shows a progression towards the acceptance of this ability.

Contains critical and teaching notes on all the poems (and extracts of poems) included in The Victorian Reading Books: Eighth Book, as well as biographical summaries of the poets. Topics discussed include the themes, metre, subject-matter, vocabulary and figures of speech.

Kendall's Use of 'Uloola'Archibald Meston,
1902single work criticism — Appears in:
The Bulletin,11 Januaryvol.
23no.
11431902;(p. 2)AbstractIn this letter to the editor, Meston as Queensland Protector of Aborigines affirms against the Rev. J. L. Mathew that Kendall obtained the word, 'Uloola,' used in one of his poems, from Aboriginal languages associated with the Clarence River, a district where he lived for many years.

Something AboriginalArchibald Meston,
1902single work essay — Appears in:
The Bulletin,16 Augustvol.
23no.
11741902;(p. 31)AbstractMeston objects to Kendall's reference in 'The Last of His Tribe' to 'slings,' which he argues were never used by Aborigines. This is the basis for the main theme of this essay: '[t]he intense conservatism and spirit of isolation of the Australian tribes,' which will lead inevitably to their 'unspeakably pathetic' disappearance. Meston supports his premise by noting that the Aborigines of the tip of Cape York did not adopt bows and arrows from the nearby Straits Islanders, nor generally did Aborigines adopt firearms from white men. The different dialects of Stradbroke, Moreton and Bribie Islands remained separate, as did the three languages spoken on Fraser Island.

Kendall's Use of 'Uloola'Archibald Meston,
1902single work criticism — Appears in:
The Bulletin,11 Januaryvol.
23no.
11431902;(p. 2)AbstractIn this letter to the editor, Meston as Queensland Protector of Aborigines affirms against the Rev. J. L. Mathew that Kendall obtained the word, 'Uloola,' used in one of his poems, from Aboriginal languages associated with the Clarence River, a district where he lived for many years.

Something AboriginalArchibald Meston,
1902single work essay — Appears in:
The Bulletin,16 Augustvol.
23no.
11741902;(p. 31)AbstractMeston objects to Kendall's reference in 'The Last of His Tribe' to 'slings,' which he argues were never used by Aborigines. This is the basis for the main theme of this essay: '[t]he intense conservatism and spirit of isolation of the Australian tribes,' which will lead inevitably to their 'unspeakably pathetic' disappearance. Meston supports his premise by noting that the Aborigines of the tip of Cape York did not adopt bows and arrows from the nearby Straits Islanders, nor generally did Aborigines adopt firearms from white men. The different dialects of Stradbroke, Moreton and Bribie Islands remained separate, as did the three languages spoken on Fraser Island.

Contains critical and teaching notes on all the poems (and extracts of poems) included in The Victorian Reading Books: Eighth Book, as well as biographical summaries of the poets. Topics discussed include the themes, metre, subject-matter, vocabulary and figures of speech.

The Radiant Dream : Notes on Henry KendallAdrian Mitchell,
1969single work criticism — Appears in:
Australian Literary Studies,Octobervol.
4no.
21969;(p. 99-114)Henry Kendall : The Muse of Australia1992;(p. 37-53)AbstractMitchell looks to Kendall's poetry for a "system of images that amount to a loose poetic philosophy, an attitude of mind that is formulated emotionally rather than logically, but in any case consistently". Mitchell detects an observer who occupies a middle (dream-like) state beside a stream between differents poles such as real/ideal and city/forest. Although the observer seeks but can't find the source of this stream, he gains the ability to believe in poetic vision--the radiant dream. Mitchell argues that all of Kendall's poetry shows a progression towards the acceptance of this ability.